Is this ick on my puffers?

This is a discussion on Is this ick on my puffers? within the Tropical Fish Diseases forums, part of the Freshwater Fish and Aquariums category; -->
Hi fellow members,
When you create a new topic we will need to ask a number of questions about your situation so we can ...

When you create a new topic we will need to ask a number of questions about your situation so we can best determine how to help you. To speed up the process, we ask that you have the following information available at the time of your first post:

1. What is the size of your tank? 20 gallons

2. What are your water parameters? State the brand of test kit used. 0 amm, .5 nitrite, 0 nitrates ( this tank was previously cycled with tiger barbs but i think the puffers bioload is much bigger so ive now had a nitrite spike and have no idea where my nitrates went) ph is 7.6-7.8, kh is 5, gh is 1-2. Kit is the api master kit and the api kh and gh kit.

3. Is your aquarium set up freshwater or brackish water? Freshwater

4. How long the aquarium has been set up? Almost 4 months

5. What fish do you have? How many are in your tank? How big are they? How long have you had them? I have 2 south american puffers. Ive had them about 3 weeks and there are about 1.5 in long

6. Were the fish placed under quarantine period (minus the first batch from the point wherein the tank is ready to accommodate the inhabitants)?
No the fish were not quarentined but they are the only inhabitants and were bought together.

7. What temperature is the tank water currently? 79 degrees

8. Are there live plants in the aquarium? Yes, i currently have 8 bunches. I do not know the names of them all, but there are 2 lillies and some nymph all growing well and thriving.

9. What filter are you using? State brand, maintenance routine and power capacity.
Marineland penguin 250. I rinse the filter cartridge every 3-4 weeks with tank water.

10. Any other equipment used (aside from heater and filter which are two very important components of the tank)? No

11. Does your aquarium receive natural sunlight at any given part of the day? What is your lighting schedule (assuming you do not rely on sunlight for our viewing pleasure)? No real natural sunlight, blinds r open but windows in house are 100% uv. I have lights on 12 hours a day from around 6am to 6pm.

12. When did you perform your last water change and how much water was changed? How often do you change your water? Do you vacuum the substrate?
Last water change was 50% on 12 mar. I treat water with prime. I do vacuum substrate. Since nitrite spike about a week ago ive been doin 50% changes every other day and using prime to protect fish.
13. What foods do you provide your fish? What is the feeding schedule? My puffers get a ramshorn snail 2 times a day to share and and bloodworm each. I hand feed each of them and watch their bellies to determine when they have had enough

14. What unusual signs have you observed in your fish? Just the white spots.

15. Have you treated your fish ahead of diagnosis? If so, what treatments did you use? State your reasons for planning ahead of proper diagnosis. Yes i treated with Mardel coppersafe. I talked to lfs and told them i thought it was ick and needed something safe for scaless fish. Tey gave me coppersafe. During waterchanges, i medicate based on instructions. Fish are active and eating well. Seem to be feeling well. I have attached a photo.

It sounds like Ich but here's the thing and I don't know the direction to tell ya to go. The treatment for Ich is usually dose meds as you have and raise the temp above 80 for a week but being you have high nitrites you can't really go a week without doing water changes as you have been doing them every other day and using Prime. So the meds are not going to much good if you keep doing water changes. So here's the question which is more harmful high nitrites or Ich? I personally thinking the high nitrites are in this case as puffers are extremely sensitive to them but I don't know how bad the Ich is either so I can answer the this question and hopefully someone else will/can step in and help.

It sounds like Ich but here's the thing and I don't know the direction to tell ya to go. The treatment for Ich is usually dose meds as you have and raise the temp above 80 for a week but being you have high nitrites you can't really go a week without doing water changes as you have been doing them every other day and using Prime. So the meds are not going to much good if you keep doing water changes. So here's the question which is more harmful high nitrites or Ich? I personally thinking the high nitrites are in this case as puffers are extremely sensitive to them but I don't know how bad the Ich is either so I can answer the this question and hopefully someone else will/can step in and help.

Thank you for the input. Your thought process is mine exactly. I truly believe my puffers contracted the ich because their immune systems were lowered due to the nitrite spike. I feel like if i can get my nitrites under control then their immune systems will be stronger to fight the ich.

Yes high nitrites can lower the immune system (and cause other problems as well I am sure.) which can lead to other illnesses like Ich in this case.
Being you. 5 nitrites which pretty high I personally would be doing water changes everyday till it comes back down. Then treat for Ich. Though again I don't know if this is the right way to be handling this situation. So please ask around this is just me thinking out loud and these are obviously your pets.
After cycling the tank with Tiger Barbs and taken them out did you tank out anything else?? I am wondering if you somehow put the tank into mini cycle on accident?

Yes high nitrites can lower the immune system (and cause other problems as well I am sure.) which can lead to other illnesses like Ich in this case.
Being you. 5 nitrites which pretty high I personally would be doing water changes everyday till it comes back down. Then treat for Ich. Though again I don't know if this is the right way to be handling this situation. So please ask around this is just me thinking out loud and these are obviously your pets.
After cycling the tank with Tiger Barbs and taken them out did you tank out anything else?? I am wondering if you somehow put the tank into mini cycle on accident?

Oh im most definitely sure i sent the tank into a minicycle. The penguin 100 filter i originally had with the tank did not provide enough current or filtration for my puffers. I changed out filters but thought i did it the right way by leaving both filters in for about a week an then keeping the filter cartridge from the original filter into the new filter. I regret it now, but the filter was goin to have to be upgraded at some point.